Many believe that the harder it is to get a backlink, the more valuable it will be. While backlinks are important, you don’t always need to work harder to improve your rankings on Google. Sometimes, a simple internal linking strategy can yield impressive results.
In fact, we’ve been intentionally using internal linking for the past year, and it has significantly boosted our organic traffic. If you’ve tried internal linking but haven’t seen the results you hoped for, chances are you’re missing at least one of three key ingredients.
Before we dive into those ingredients, let’s first understand how internal linking can impact your rankings with a simple strategy known as the Middleman Method.
What Is the Middleman Method?
The Middleman Method is a straightforward internal linking strategy where you:
- Build backlinks to a page on your site to increase its authority.
- Add internal links from this authoritative page to your important (money) pages.
- Pass the authority from your high-authority page to the linked pages, boosting their rankings in Google.
For this method to work effectively, three things need to be in place:
1. Backlinks to the Linking Page
Backlinks are the fuel that powers a page’s authority, also known as PageRank. If your linking page has strong backlinks, it can pass a portion of that authority to the pages it links to. If your linking page lacks authority, it won’t be able to help the linked pages rank better.
2. Matching Searcher Intent
Google’s primary goal is to provide users with the most relevant search results. If the page you’re trying to rank doesn’t match the user’s intent, even a strong internal linking strategy won’t be effective. Ensuring that your page satisfies search intent is crucial.
3. Realistic Competition
If your site is new and competing against pages with hundreds of backlinks, ranking at the top will be difficult. Instead, focus on competing against pages that are on a similar level to yours. Choose battles you can win rather than going head-to-head with industry giants right away.
Finding Internal Linking Opportunities
Now that you understand the key elements, let’s go step by step through finding internal linking opportunities.
Step 1: Identify Important Pages
First, create a list of important pages that you want to rank higher in Google. These should be pages that:
- Have high business value (they contribute to conversions or revenue).
- Have good traffic potential but aren’t currently ranking in the top positions.
If you’re running an eCommerce or SaaS business, prioritize pages based on their ranking potential. You can use Ahrefs Site Explorer (paid or free webmaster tools account) to do this:
- Enter your website URL.
- Go to the Organic Keywords Report.
- Set a filter for positions 2 to 10 to find pages that could benefit from a ranking boost.
Step 2: Find Relevant Pages to Link From
Now, you need to find internal linking opportunities. There are three ways to do this:
1. Google Site Search
Use Google to find relevant pages on your site that mention the topic of your target page. Search using this format:
site:yourwebsite.com [keyword]
For example, if your target page is about 301 redirects, search for:
site:yourwebsite.com 301 redirects
This will show pages on your site that mention 301 redirects, which could be good places to add internal links.
2. Ahrefs Site Audit (Internal Link Opportunities Report)
If you’re using Ahrefs Site Audit, you can:
- Run a crawl of your site.
- Go to the Internal Link Opportunities Report.
- Use advanced filters to find pages that mention your target keywords.
This report suggests internal linking opportunities based on keyword rankings and content relevance.
3. Best by Links Report
To find high-authority pages on your site that could pass strong PageRank, use Ahrefs Best by Links Report:
- Enter your domain in Ahrefs Site Explorer.
- Go to the Best by Links Report.
- Filter for live pages with a 200 response code.
Look at the URL Rating (UR) and number of referring domains to find the most powerful internal linking pages.
Tracking the Impact of Internal Links
After adding internal links, track your rankings to see if they’re making a difference. You can do this using a Rank Tracking Tool, such as Ahrefs Rank Tracker:
- Add your target keywords.
- Tag them for tracking.
- Add an annotation for when you implemented the internal links.
Monitoring keyword movement over time will help you understand whether your internal linking efforts are effective.
The Bigger Picture: Internal Links vs. External Backlinks
While internal links are an excellent way to boost rankings, they aren’t a magic bullet. In some cases, you might also need:
- More external backlinks to increase PageRank.
- Content updates to improve relevance and quality.
For example, if a page has been stuck at position 7 for months, adding internal links alone might not be enough. A content refresh could have a bigger impact.
Conclusion
Internal linking is a simple yet powerful strategy to improve your rankings. By strategically linking from authoritative pages, you can pass PageRank and boost the visibility of your money pages.
Here’s a quick recap:
- Build backlinks to an authoritative page.
- Use that page to link internally to important pages.
- Ensure the target page matches search intent.
- Compete against realistic competitors.
- Use Google Search, Ahrefs Site Audit, and Best by Links Report to find linking opportunities.
- Track your progress with a rank-tracking tool.